The music video for Queen's iconic song 'I Want to Break Free' is just as iconic as the song it is accompanying. In some cases, people remember the video more than the song.
Firstly, this video is dominantly performative. It features Freddie Mercury, singing towards the camera and in turn, the audience. There isn't any real story to be told here, it's just the band singing - or lip-synching, if you want to get into semantics - to the music. It also has Mercury dancing later in the video.
Secondly, there are three main themes to the video: one being the entire first bit of the video. In essence, the first bit is one big reference to the famous British soap, Coronation Street, where each band member is dressed up as a character from the TV show. It could also be considered as them being in drag/cross-dressing, as well as being a referential code, since the video references other media outside of its own.
The second part of the video comes from when Mercury opens a door and reveals a completely different setting, and then lets the editing do the rest. The screen flashes white for a few seconds, and then fades into the different setting seen within the doorframe. It looks a lot like a stage, with the spotlights and fog machines giving the impression that you’re at a rock concert of sorts. It makes sense though, since Queen is a rock band. And, as always, as the lead singer and most famous member of the band, Freddy Mercury takes center stage in front of the other three members. Many other figures with lights affixed to their heads surround them, as they seem to take a few steps down every couple of seconds, seemingly in beat with the music. The scene then transitions again, flashing between the current setting and the setting that Mercury then appears in.
The third part of the video is basically Mercury singing and dancing to the music. However, this doesn’t seem to be a complete change of settings, as those figures with the lights on their heads appear within the frame that Mercury walked out of, sort of like they followed him. There are many different ways you could interpret these figures, one of which being the idea that they represent the media, who always shine a spotlight on those who may be deemed ‘different’ from the status quo, especially in entertainment.
Mercury then slides in from the right, taking the middle of the screen up in yet another scene change. This time, instead of a blue-lit environment, like the ones from the stage and the sort of cave-like area, it’s a warm, yellow light. After a bit of dancing and a overhead shot from the camera, he then ducks behind a white, glowing box. The camera then shows the box fully within the frame, as its walls fall and reveal Mercury, sitting atop what seems to be a pile of bodies, playing a brass horn. There are then several artsy performances, not unlike interpretive dance.
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